The Gambling Arms Race & Market Saturation

From United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts   --

IT BEGINS...

On June 10, 2010 the RI House endorsed a bill to seek voter approval for converting the state's two slot parlors, Twin River in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport, into full-scale casinos.

Supporters see casinos as a way to raise revenue for the state and say Rhode Island could lose out if neighboring Massachusetts approves expanded gambling.

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Are casinos nearing saturation? And is online gambling next?

August 3rd, 2012 by Ted Nesi



When Rhode Islanders go to the polls in November, they’ll be asked for the second time in six years whether to allow casino gambling in the state. Surveys indicate they’re likely to say yes, clearing the way for Twin River and Newport Grand to become full-fledged casinos.

The New York Times’ Michael Cooper has an interesting article [below] examining the gambling landscape up and down the East Coast, and raising questions about whether there’s enough demand to merit the industry’s continued expansion:

The rapid expansion of gambling, as recession-wracked states have searched for new sources of money, has transformed the industry. States that once enjoyed near-monopolies on gambling … have been suffering the most in the new casino-dotted national landscape. …

“The driving factor here is location,” said William R. Eadington, a professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno. “Other things being equal, people will choose the most accessible or convenient casino outlets. People who used to travel some distance no longer do.” …

The endless one-upmanship among states has some analysts wondering at what point the market will become saturated, and whether the industry has reached a point of diminishing returns. …

Some fiscal analysts wonder about the long-term benefits of casinos for state finances. “Gambling legalization and expansion during tough times produces significant short-term revenue increases in some jurisdictions,” a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government found last year. “But if experience is a guide, such growth will not continue over time.”

Cooper also notes a new law signed in Delaware last month that made it the first state to legalize Internet gambling, which the feds are now allowing. Rhode Island officials are open to online gambling, and Delaware reportedly wants to partner with Rhode Island and West Virginia on some sort of online poker offering.

http://blogs.wpri.com/2012/08/03/are-casinos-nearing-saturation-and-is-online-gambling-next/

States Up the Ante in Bid to Lure Other States’ Bettors

By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: August 2, 2012   

 Cash-hungry states have long tried to poach business from one another. Now many are stepping up their efforts to lure gamblers from their neighbors to their growing ranks of slot machines, leaving states like Delaware, which embraced gambling early, struggling to keep up in what has become a feverish one-armed-bandit arms race.

Gambling revenue accounts for more than 7 percent of Delaware’s general fund budget, making it the state’s fourth biggest revenue stream, ahead of its corporate income tax and gross receipts tax. But when new casinos in Maryland and Pennsylvania began to attract the gamblers who once fed quarters into Delaware’s machines, the state acted. First it legalized a form of sports betting. Then it allowed table games including blackjack, craps and roulette. But its gambling revenues have continued to fall.

So at the end of June, Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat, signed a law that could make Delaware the first state to offer Internet gambling — giving its residents the chance to bet on video lottery games and online versions of games like poker, blackjack and roulette without leaving their homes.

      

The law takes advantage of a recent Justice Department ruling that reversed the federal government’s long-held opposition to many forms of online gambling. The law will also expand sports betting and Keno games, and give its three racetrack casinos — which lost 15.9 percent of their jobs last year, the biggest such drop in the nation — more money for capital improvements and advertising.

      

“If we had not approved gaming along these lines this year and put ourselves at the forefront, other states would have moved ahead of us and we would have been back in a year or two playing catch-up,” said Tom Cook, Delaware’s secretary of finance. He said that intense competition from Maryland and Pennsylvania was projected to drive down Delaware’s gambling revenues to $206.4 million in the year that began in July, from $248.8 million in the 2011 fiscal year.

      

The rapid expansion of gambling, as recession-racked states have searched for new sources of money, has transformed the industry. States that once enjoyed near-monopolies on gambling — including Delaware, which legalized slotlike machines at its racetracks in 1994, and New Jersey, which opened the nation’s first casinos outside of Nevada in 1978 — have been suffering the most in the new casino-dotted national landscape.

      

Atlantic City’s casino revenues have fallen by more than a third in recent years, according to an analysis by the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Pennsylvania, which opened its first casino in 2007, is overtaking New Jersey by some measures: over the past year Pennsylvania has taken in more slot machine revenue than New Jersey, according to Shawn K. McCloud, the vice president for analysis at Spectrum Gaming Group, a gambling research and professional services firm.

      

“The driving factor here is location,” said William R. Eadington, a professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno. “Other things being equal, people will choose the most accessible or convenient casino outlets. People who used to travel some distance no longer do.”

The competition between the states can be fierce.

After New York City opened its first casino last year at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, Atlantic City hotels began advertising in New York’s subways. The Mount Airy Casino Resort, in the Poconos, broadcasts commercials on New Jersey cable channels and has billboards in Atlantic City and in the New York City area. One says “Less Time In Traffic, More at the Wheel,” and shows a roulette wheel.

“The billboards are strategically placed as you exit the tunnels and bridges out of New York City into New Jersey,” said John Culetsu, the Mount Airy resort’s executive vice president and general manager. He said that 52 percent of the players in the casino’s loyalty program come from New York or New Jersey.

But some of Pennsylvania’s new casinos are now facing newer competition: Cleveland opened its first casino in May, competing for some of the same players who now gamble in Erie, Pa., less than two hours away. More competition is on the horizon: a special session of the Maryland legislature will consider expanding casino gambling, adding table games at existing casinos and allowing a new one to open near Washington — which state officials say could bring in millions of dollars in new revenues. In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has proposed expanding gambling. In New England, Massachusetts’ plan to open several casinos is worrying the operators of casinos in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

      

The endless one-upmanship among states has some analysts wondering at what point the market will become saturated, and whether the industry has reached a point of diminishing returns. Casinos are using other come-ons to try to lure gamblers — some Atlantic City ads remind people that its casinos are, in fact, on the beach, while Mount Airy plays up its Poconos location, large spa and restaurants.

Some fiscal analysts wonder about the long-term benefits of casinos for state finances. “Gambling legalization and expansion during tough times produces significant short-term revenue increases in some jurisdictions,” a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government found last year. “But if experience is a guide, such growth will not continue over time.”

Casinos in Delaware continue to warily eye the expansion in neighboring states. One of its casinos, Dover Downs, said in its 2011 annual report that 42 percent of its winnings came from Maryland residents.

Delaware’s move online will focus only on state residents — there is some debate over whether the Justice Department ruling allows Internet gambling only within states that approve it or between states. Given Delaware’s population — it has fewer than a million residents — the pool of potential online gamblers is on the small side. But some gambling experts say the reverberations could be big.

I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in California who writes a blog called Gambling and the Law, predicted that it would spur other states to follow suit, and he noted that Nevada has also taken steps toward online gambling. “I think Delaware’s move really pushes New Jersey to legalize,” he said. “And when you have Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada, then next year Iowa will legalize.”

A version of this article appeared in print on August 3, 2012, on page A13 of the National edition with the headline: Casino Boom Has States Looking to the Internet For Gambling Dollars.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/us/gambling-boom-leaves-states-struggling-to-catch-up.html?_r=1

The first comment after the NYT article says it all --

Doug

Boston, Ma

Report Inappropriate Comment

• Vulgar
• Inflammatory
• Personal Attack

• Spam
• Off-topic

Perfect example of how so much of government exists to support itself, not to serve the people.

Maryland: Internet Gamblilng, Can of Worms

Maryland

Senators reluctant to take up Internet gambling

Key panel members say there isn't time to weigh impact

By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun

August 3, 2012

Key senators on the committee that handles casino-related matters rejected the notion of taking up the issue of Internet gambling during next week's special session, saying there isn't enough time to weigh the implications of a step that could, in effect, put slot machines in Maryland homes.

Four Democratic members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, each a supporter of other forms of gambling expansion, said Friday that they are not prepared to sort through the complex issues surrounding online gambling in a session that is expected to last less than a week.

House Speaker Michael E. Buschtold House Democrats in an email Wednesday that they can expect to see Internet gambling on the table in the special session called by Gov.Martin O'Malley to consider allowing a Prince George's casino and table games.

O'Malley said through a spokeswoman that he agrees that online gambling should be part of the discussion.

The special session, the General Assembly's second this year, is expected to begin Thursday.

Sen.Edward J. Kasemeyer, who chairs the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, said he is reluctant to deal with Internet gambling next week because there are many unanswered questions.

Unlike the other issues expected to come up, he said, his committee hasn't held hearings on Internet gambling, which could let gamblers play slots, video poker and other games on their computers and smartphones. "It just seems to have a lot of implications potentially that I'm not aware of," the Howard County Democrat said. "What does it mean? What is it all about?"

Among other problems, Kasemeyer said, is that bringing Internet gaming into the discussion could result in a more drawn-out session.

Senate PresidentThomas V. Mike Miller, the legislature's leading proponent of gambling expansion, has expressed the hope that the session can be wrapped up in three days. But an aide to Busch said it is likely to take a few days more to wrap up work.

Miller, a Calvert County Democrat who has kept a low profile on gambling issues in recent weeks, could not be reached for comment. But three other Democrats on the budget committee bluntly dismissed the idea of considering Internet gambling.

"It just seems to open up a can of worms," said Sen. Roger Manno of Montgomery County.

"I don't know how you can control it for individuals under 21," said Sen.Verna Jones-Rodwellof Baltimore. "I really think it's irresponsible."

"It may be a bit of overkill," said Sen. Nathaniel McFadden of Baltimore. "You can put too many bulbs on the Christmas tree and it'll fall down."

Busch, who conferred Friday with key House members about gambling-related issues, did not take Internet gaming off the table but said the matter did not come up in the meeting.

Like other lawmakers, he acknowledged gaps in his grasp of the matter. "I don't have enough background on it. It would be unfair of me to discuss it," said Busch, an Anne Arundel County Democrat.

House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell, a Calvert County Republican, said the ramifications of Internet gambling "need to be thoroughly vetted.'

"To do this in a special session and make decisions, it's horrible," he said.

Beyond the question of an accelerated schedule, O'Donnell said he has serious reservations about the underlying policy.

"It just seems like gambling proliferation on steroids," he said.

Senate Minority WhipEdward R. Reilly, an Anne Arundel County Republican, displayed no more enthusiasm for what he called a "dramatic" step.

"It could be going into every single household and electronic device in a hurry and we have to take our time and look at it," Reilly said.

But Del. Jon Cardin of Baltimore County, a Democrat on the House committee that handles gambling, said the state might already be losing revenue to Internet gambling on offshore websites.

He said it might make sense during the special session to discuss ways to regulate it.

"Let's figure out a way to keep it under our umbrella," he said.

The idea of Internet gambling surfaced this week when Arundel Mills casino developer David Cordish said one of the steps lawmakers could take that might ease his concerns about a rival slots operation in Prince George's casino would be to let him offer Internet gambling at a tax rate of 10 percent.

That's far less than the 67 percent the state collects on slot machine revenue.

Jeff Hooke, an investment banker who heads the Maryland Taxpayer Education Foundation, said there isn't a lot of precedent for setting a tax rate on Internet gambling.

But he called the Cordish proposal "absurdly low" and said the rate should be set through a competitive bidding process.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-internet-gaming-react-20120803,0,3014756.story

Thrill of the game

Gambling or investing, same basic drives are involved

By: Joel Schlesinger

Few seasoned gamblers would argue with cautionary advice offered by Kenny Rogers' tune The Gambler.

But what fascinates psychologist Dr. Michael Ellery is not how we know when to hold 'em or fold 'em so much as why we even choose to hold any cards in our hands in the first place.

"Mostly I look at what's called affective reasons for gambling, so emotional reasons for gambling, as well as gambling cognitions -- in other words, irrational beliefs about gambling," says the assistant professor at the University of Manitoba.

Ellery has primarily studied problem VLT gamblers and how their addictions might be exacerbated by underlying mental illness such as depression. But he is now focusing on professional poker players and how they may or may not differ from problem VLT gamblers. He even spent four months in Las Vegas recently observing them in their gaudy habitat.

Ellery admits he, too, enjoys a good game of cards and, undoubtedly, money makes the game all the more pleasurable and exciting.

On the surface, gambling may appear to have little to do with how we carry out our day-to-day financial lives. Yet the motivations behind gambling and our often misguided beliefs about its potential financial payoffs say much about the deeply rooted psychological connection to money.

Money is arguably a tangible and widely understood expression of the ability to fulfil our most basic needs and desires. It deeply influences our instinctual behaviour, circumventing rational thinking more than we realize.

Gambling is just one of the more obvious manifestations of our often irrational relationship with money.

And the desire to gamble -- or more precisely, to take on risk -- is a more frequent occurrence in our financial lives than we would like to let on.

Curiously, however, Ellery says research into gambling motivations -- particularly for problem gamblers -- has often overlooked the role of the almighty dollar.

"We've totally missed this money motive in a lot of our gambling research in psychology, which kind of seems a little stupid in retrospect," he says.

"But at the time, it made sense because we were just taking these measures that already had established psychometric properties and tried to apply them to gambling."

Most studies into VLT addiction, for example, have looked at the problem through the lens of drug addiction, in particular cocaine, because that drug and gambling share a commonality: They stimulate the same parts of the brain.

But a couple of years ago, Ellery and a colleague investigated whether money is indeed an important gambling motivation, asking gamblers in a questionnaire how much money affected their enjoyment of the activity.

"We wanted to see whether that was something that people would endorse, and they do -- obviously," he says. "People gamble to win money, but it tends to link to that excitement factor; people use money to make it exciting."

Ellery's area of study has focused on poker and VLTs, but he says the psychological motivations that drive people to gamble in casinos could play a role in the investment world.

Undoubtedly, the investment world attracts its share of gamblers. Traders may make educated bets on bonds, stocks, currency and commodities, but they're wagers all the same.

The recent multibillion-dollar loss at JP Morgan, incurred by a rogue trader referred to as the "London Whale," is probably one of the more extreme examples. He earned his nickname because his wagers were so big they distorted markets. Yet his moniker could have easily been a reference to the term's meaning in the gambling world.

"A 'whale' is a really high roller, and casinos will cater to them a lot by flying them to Vegas and putting them up," Ellery says. "These guys are betting millions of dollars, as opposed to you and me."
These high rollers may win from time to time, but the reason they receive the royal treatment is because the casinos are likely to get their investment back when the whales lose a big wad of cash at the tables.

It's hard to pinpoint the London Whale's exact motivations, but certainly the promise of big money with little personal risk seems likely to have played a leading role. It certainly did in numerous other instances in recent history, such as the collapse of AIG, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

Of course, not all traders are irresponsible gamblers, nor are all gamblers addicts.

But Ellery says most gamblers experience physiological changes while gambling, and perhaps these same changes occur in Wall Street and Bay Street brokers and day traders.

Gambling turns us on, to put it bluntly. Our heart rate increases and, inside the brain, a complex chemical reaction sets in motion feelings of pleasure and reward that are similar to what drug users experience.

"Stimulant drugs like cocaine and nicotine increase heart rate and along with that comes a flood of brain chemicals, in particular dopamine, that activate the reward system in the brain," Ellery says.

Dopamine helps regulate how we experience pleasure and pain. It plays a role in how we learn and affects our motivation.

"It tells you when you're doing the right thing by producing that pleasurable effect telling you this is the right thing you should be doing," he says.

"The other thing is it tells you what's salient in your environment."

That means dopamine levels don't just spike when we gamble or a cocaine addict snorts white powder. Just seeing objects related to these activities can trigger the same response. Furthermore, after prolonged exposure, everything else by comparison just doesn't measure up.

"Gambling can be so rewarding and exciting to people with a problem that they have to learn to live their lives without that really exciting part of it, and that's related to dopamine."

Researchers have also discovered that even when we lose while gambling by a narrow margin, our brain tends to release as much dopamine as when we win, which may explain why people continue to gamble while on losing streaks, Ellery says.

This research supports much of the past work of behavioural psychologists that calls into question our concept of free will.

They argue behaviour is largely guided by psychological and environmental factors beyond our control. If you think of VLT players as rats hitting a lever to get a food pellet repeatedly, even though the action hasn't resulted in a pellet in some time, you kind of get the idea.

"That's called an intermittent reinforcement schedule, and the machines do exactly the same thing for people as the lever and pellet reward do for rats," Ellery says. "People will continue to play the machines, even though they don't win very often, just because that pattern of reinforcement produces that long-term play behaviour."

He says behaviourists have taken a lot of criticism for questioning whether we are actually in control of our behaviour.

"People get sensitive about that, but I don't have a problem with it."

Obviously, we often do manage our behaviour for the better, or we would all be problem gamblers or irresponsible managers of money, which is not the case, he says.

But it certainly makes one wonder if the next big financial meltdown might boil down to rat-brain behaviour.

It is the "rat race," after all.

giganticsmile@gmail.com
Gambling fast and slow
Investing may share much with gambling, but what often sets it apart for most people is it takes much longer to see the results of our wagers. That's an important distinction, says gambling addiction expert Dr. Michael Ellery. Studies have found the slower the game, the less likelihood someone will develop a problem. That's why VLTs, which provide almost constant stimulation, can be so problematic for some people, particularly those individuals wanting to block out unpleasant aspects of their lives, Ellery says.

Economics and psychology
The bridge between finance and economics occurred in academia more than 30 years ago when psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky developed the Prospect Theory, which can just as easily apply to gambling as it does to investing. "For the same amount of money won or lost, people will experience more displeasure when they lose compared to the amount of pleasure they will experience for winning," Ellery says. They also found we will assess risks to be higher when they are framed in a negative light. "For example, people will prefer treatment that saves 80 per cent of people compared to a treatment that will kill 20 per cent of people," he says. It may be the same treatment, but when it's framed positively, we tend to assess the risk to be less than when it's stated in a negative manner.

Gamblers' tricks, tips and misbeliefs
Ellery studies what makes gamblers tick. Below are a few of the intricacies of the trade he's observed over the years.

Failure to understand probabilities: Gambling comes down to math and probabilities, and the fact is most people don't fully grasp the amount of pure chance involved in winning. Many VLT gamblers, for instance, believe they have a system for finding a hot machine. They may think a machine that hasn't paid out in a while will pay out for them.

"It's the failure to understand how each gambling event is randomly generated," he says. "It's got nothing to do with previous events."

Superstitious feelings

Even though most people don't believe breaking a mirror actually leads to seven years of bad luck, or walking under a ladder puts one on the path to misfortune, Ellery says many gamblers do indeed hold many superstitious beliefs, even though science proves gambling outcomes are completely random.

"There are superstitious beliefs that the outcome can be influenced if I hit the buttons a certain way on the machine, or if I just pat it gently and talk dirty to it, I can get it to pay out," he says. Gamblers hold firm to these beliefs, even when he tries to persuade them otherwise. "They don't want to buy what I'm selling about mathematical probabilities."

Behind the poker face: All pro poker players work hard to show little emotion, whether they have a winning hand or they're bluffing, but even some of the best have trouble. That's why some pros wear sunglasses at the table, Ellery says. The fact is we all have certain traits that become evident when we are excited, and they can be difficult if not impossible to control. In many instances, we don't even know we're doing them. Many amateur poker players, for example, will look at their chips quickly when they have a good hand, and they'll glance at the other players' chips when they have a bad hand.

But understanding behaviour is only a small part of what makes a good poker player, Ellery says. The really good players understand probabilities. And the great ones understand how others make decisions in light of the probabilities.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 4, 2012 B8

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/thrill-of-the-game-164986496.html

31 Year Old Gambling Addict to Prison for Embezzlement

Gambling addict embezzled £6200 from work to pay near £20,000 debts

A GAMBLING addict, who racked up debt nearing £20,000, has been jailed for a year after admitting embezzling almost £6500 from his work. Ross Wilson, now of Somerset Road in Ayr, was working as a manager at Farmfoods in Stranraer in 2010 when he started to steal small amounts of money from his work to pay off debts.

These small amounts quickly became £6284.56 and Wilson was confronted on August 26 that year after discrepancies in the books were noticed.

The 31-year-old was given the chance to pay the money back without police involvement and gave staff at the store his debit card as an assurance he would pay.

Wilson even started applying for a bank loan but, after failing to come up with the cash, he was again confronted by staff who demanded he repaid the money - at this point he handed over his passport to convince them he would not flee and intended to repay his debts.

Stranraer Sheriff Court was told that staff remained in touch and exchanged texts with him to see how he was getting on recouping the money.

Unable to find the money, the business management graduate then resorted to stealing a cheque from his mum and posted it with a letter through the door of the premises on Charlotte Street in the town.

But, when his mum pulled a statement from an ATM in early September, she noticed a payment pending for £6500 to Farmfoods and immediately contacted her bank. Time was up for Wilson, as the cheque failed to clear and staff finally called in the police.

Speaking to Stranraer Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Wilson's defence solicitor, Ms Stewart said he was "extremely regretful" over his actions, after things just got "out of control".

Ms Stewart said he was "extremely remorseful" about stealing his mother's chequebook to try to pay off the debt with her money. She said relations between the two had improved after she was made aware of his addiction.

Wilson had one previous conviction of "dishonesty", which was resolved by means of a fine and Ms Stewart said he was "eager to get his life back on track" as she asked for a community payback order to be considered as his punishment.

However, Sheriff Robb dismissed this request and sentenced Wilson to 12 months imprisonment, two months of which he had already served after pleading guilty.

Sheriff Robb told Wilson: "You entered a scheme to take money from your employers. I accept you tried to pay this back, but you seemed to have used the time honoured means of getting out of a hole, whereby you just kept digging even further."

Published: 03 Aug 2012

http://www.stranraer-freepress.co.uk/article.aspx?id=765&Type=F

Kicked to the Curb in Rhode Island

RI eliminates funds for gambling addiction program

By DAVID KLEPPER

Associated Press / August 3, 2012

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island has eliminated funding for a program that offered help to compulsive gamblers, and the psychologist who ran the program says he’s being forced to turn away potential patients even as two slots parlors seek to expand into full casinos.

Since 2001, psychologists at Rhode Island Hospital have provided therapy to 1,600 problem gamblers who are uninsured or who lack the ability to pay for treatment. The state originally dedicated $150,000 a year to the program but the amount dropped to $67,000 in the most recent fiscal year that ended June 30.

This year, the General Assembly eliminated funding altogether. Instead, lawmakers voted to make Newport Grand and Twin River slot parlors contribute at least $100,000 to gambling addiction treatment, but only if voters pass referendums this fall that would authorize table games like poker and blackjack at the two facilities.

Bob Breen, the psychologist who directed the program at Rhode Island Hospital, said it’s ‘‘beyond comprehension’’ that the state eliminated funding for his program to await the uncertain outcome of the referendums. He said he’s already had to turn away potential patients because of the program’s elimination.

‘‘What happens to people who have severe gambling problems between now and then? Or the referendums don’t pass? They get kicked to the curb,’’ Breen said.

The Rhode Island Lottery is working on a plan to continue funding for gambling addiction treatment before the November referendums, or in case the ballot questions fail, according to Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker Gordon Fox. The lottery also operates a gambling addiction helpline.

Breen said he has not been contacted by the state about continuing the program, and said he only learned the funding had been eliminated last week. He said the amount the state had been spending was already far too low.

Aubin was unavailable on Friday, according to a lottery spokeswoman, who said she had no information on the funding that had gone to Rhode Island Hospital.

The state made $355 million last year from its lottery and its share of slot parlor revenues.

Rhode Island already spent far less than most states on problem gambling services, according to a 2010 survey of state programs by the Association of Problem Gambling Service Administrators. The survey found that in 2010 Rhode Island spent less than 10 cents per capita on problem gambling treatment programs, compared to a national average of 34 cents.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/2012/08/03/eliminates-funds-for-gambling-addiction-program/bx1uXpNQrXWIJunisvvcGL/story.html

Children Pay the Price For Sands Revenue

Governor Ed Rendell flamed about "Simpletons," ignoring the price paid by children because of Gambling Addiction.




Instead of growing up carefree and smiling, Gambling Addiction destroys families and childhood.

Harrah's [now Caesars, salivating to bring Gambling Addiction to East Boston] determined that 90% of their profits originated from 10% of their patrons.

That's Gambling Addiction, without which the Gambling Industry would not survive.

Police: Woman left five children alone in car while gambling

Allentown woman is charged with endangering her five children.
By Pamela Lehman, Of The Morning Call
August 3, 2012

For about an hour one night last week, Yulissa Troncoso was paged repeatedly over the intercom as she played the slots at the Sands casino, Bethlehem police said.

The casino was trying to reach her because her five kids — the youngest 10 months old — had been discovered alone in her car with the windows cracked open slightly, police said. The high temperature that day, July 26, had been 91 degrees.

In what could be the first case of its kind locally, Troncoso, 33, of 518 N. Dauphin St. in east Allentown, was charged Friday with leaving her kids alone in her car while she gambled.

She cried as she was arraigned on five counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police said, and then was sent to Northampton County Prison under $10,000 bail.

"She wanted to gamble and she took her gamble and lost," police Lt. Mark DiLuzio said. "You don't leave a child alone in a car, unattended, under any circumstances."

Charges weren't filed until Friday because investigators were reviewing video surveillance and awaiting approval from the Northampton County district attorney's office to prosecute Troncoso, DiLuzio said.

Bethlehem police could not immediately say for sure that this was the first case of its kind in the Lehigh Valley, but they did not know of any others.

District Attorney John Morganelli could not be reached for comment. He has said his office will seek "severe sanctions" for parents who leave their kids alone while gambling. He said none of those charged would be allowed to participate in a first-time offenders' program.

In the past two years, 10 people have been arrested at the Parx Casino in lower Bucks County and charged with endangering the welfare of children. In other cases across the country, children died after being left alone in casino parking lots and locked in sweltering vehicles.

According to court records in the July 26 incident:

Security officers at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem were on patrol inside the garage around 9:20 p.m. when they saw children in the vehicle with four slightly open windows. Security then called Bethlehem police.

The children's ages are 10 months, 2 years, 6, 11 and 12.

The oldest girl told police her mother had a cellphone and she knew the number, but Troncoso didn't have the phone with her.

Troncoso continued to gamble in the casino for about an hour while she was repeatedly paged over the intercom. Video surveillance showed her playing slot machines, according to the court records.

Police said the children were not injured. They are unsure if the children were placed in the custody of a relative.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-c-bethlehem-sands-casino-kids-alone-car-20120803,0,3128334.story

Massachusetts Lottery Officials Knew

Lottery officials knew about Cash WinFall’s flaws, IG says

Cash WinFall was introduced in 2004. Every three months or so it became highly profitable for some syndicates. (Yoon S. Byun/Globe staff/file 2011)

By Andrea Estes

Globe Staff / July 31, 2012

Massachusetts State Lottery officials knew for years that a small group of gambling syndicates had virtually taken over a game called Cash WinFall — winning most of the prizes during high payoff periods — but did nothing about it until the Globe began investigating, according to state Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan.

Sullivan’s report details the way a handful of math and science wizards, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduates looking for an interesting school project, turned Cash WinFall into a nearly fulltime business, spending $40 million on tickets over a seven-year period and winning an estimated $48 million.

And lottery officials were happy about the huge sales to these sophisticated gamblers, bending and breaking lottery rules to allow them to buy hundreds of thousands of the $2 tickets, Sullivan found. If anything, lottery officials were envious, with one supervisor asking in an e-mail: “How do I become part of the club when I retire?”

State Treasurer Steven Grossman, who oversees the lottery, finally stopped the game this year. On Monday, Grossman said the agency should have taken action sooner.

“I feel it is important to essentially apologize to the public because a game was created that allowed syndicates to gain special opportunities that others did not have — using machines themselves, partnership with lottery agents, using them after hours. We’re sorry some gained unfair advantage,” said Grossman, who had requested Sullivan’s investigation.

“Revenues were tremendous and the lottery benefited, but there were practices that were not appropriate and things done that were not rignt,” he said.

However, the inspector general recommended no further action, concluding that lottery officials got no personal benefit from the syndicates’ manipulations. He also found that ordinary gamblers still had a fair chance at winning Cash WinFall, though the syndicates reported a much higher rate of profit than ordinary gamblers.

Sullivan found that the lottery failed to manage the game or enforce the rules, but concluded the game was “a financial success for the lottery.”

The Globe reported last summer that a few gamblers with an extraordinary knowledge of math and probability had found a quirk in Cash WinFall shortly after it was introduced in 2004, allowing them to make an almost guaranteed profit as long as they purchased enough tickets at the right time. They figured out that, for a few days every three months or so, Cash WinFall became the most reliably lucrative lottery game in the country.

Sullivan said that these high rollers made a livelihood from playing it, giving up their day jobs to devote nearly full-time to the game, often backed by hundreds of thousands of dollars put up by investors.

The leaders of the group of MIT students stumbled on Cash WinFall as part of a college research project. James M. Harvey told investigators he was looking for an interesting senior independent study subject for his final semester in 2005. He said it took only a few days to determine that during so-called “rolldown weeks,” it was easy for large-scale bettors to win more than they lose.

Here’s why: Unlike most lottery games, the biggest prize in Cash WinFall was capped at $2 million. If no one won the jackpot when it reached $2 million, the jackpot was then redistributed — or “rolled down” — into the smaller prizes, making them 5 to 10 times bigger than normal. Matching 5 of the 6 numbers drawn in Cash WinFall would normally produce a $4,000 prize, but during a rolldown week, the prize could top $40,000.

The groups figured out that if they bought at least $600,000 worth of tickets, the chances were excellent that they would win back 15 percent to 20 percent more than they spent. As a result, whenever the Cash WinFall jackpot got close to $2 million, the syndicates rushed to stores to buy as many tickets as possible.

Harvey said he initially tried the game on a small scale during the Feb. 7, 2005, rolldown, winning $3,000 from $1,000 worth of tickets. The group’s winnings inspired other betting pools on the MIT campus, the report said, but Harvey made it large-scale, forming a company with fellow student Yuran Lu. They called it Random Strategies Investments, after the dorm, Random Hall, where their plan was hatched.

Random Strategies officials spent many hours filling out betting slips and buying tickets at a few hand-picked stores, the report said, betting between $17 and $18 million over a seven-year period on Cash WinFall. Sullivan estimated the group earned at least $3.5 million in profits from 2005 to 2012, though Harvey declined to disclose his group’s earnings.

Leaders of another group, GS Investment Strategies of Michigan, told investigators they typically aimed to buy around 312,000 tickets to ensure profits. On July 14, 2011, the group placed its largest bet ever, spending $720,000 on 360,000 tickets.

A third group, made up of scientists at Boston University and Northeastern University, started betting in 2005 after analyzing Cash WinFall and realized the odds were in favor of large-scale bettors.

“I told everyone I met: ‘You should put more money into this game’,” said Dr. Ying Zhang, who formed the Doctor Zhang Lottery Club Limited Partnership.

He told investigators the group made steady profits from Cash WinFall from the beginning, just as his calculations had suggested. In 2006, he left his day job as a biomedical researcher to focus mainly on Cash WinFall.

The game’s vulnerability became clear in 2010, Sullivan said, when the MIT group figured out a way to win nearly the entire jackpot for a single drawing, something lottery officials had erroneously concluded was impossible.

The MIT group figured out that, if it bought enough tickets, it could push the jackpot to $2 million and trigger the rolldown all by itself.

In August 2010, the group began quietly buying up enough tickets to force a rolldown. The lottery remained silent as the MIT group stockpiled 700,000 tickets and did not alert the public that a rolldown week was about to happen, as it normally does. The MIT group bought more than 80 percent of the tickets during the August 2010 rolldown, Sullivan found, and ultimately cashed in 860 of 983 winning tickets of $600 or more.

Lottery officials previously told the Globe that they had no way of knowing what the MIT group was up to, but Sullivan concluded that was untrue. He found that the lottery knew the MIT group was buying up hundreds of thousands of tickets, because the lottery had to approve extra ticket sales for the stores the MIT group frequented.

The lottery’s finance department, which approved the extra sales, failed to notify other lottery employees whose job was to predict jackpots for the public.

The inspector general faulted the lottery for not notifying the public, noting that the agency had been caught off-guard by the MIT group — even though the group had been preparing for a forced rolldown for years before it carried one out.

Sullivan concluded the lottery was aware of the gamblers’ activities as far back as 2005 and cracked down only after officials feared negative publicity.

For instance, in April 2010, compliance officer John Marino visited the two Western Massachusetts stores where the Michigan group routinely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during rolldowns — and found no problems.

“Everything is very organized and runs smoothly,” wrote Marino, who mentioned that the owners of both stores were part of the Michigan betting club. The lottery even placed a second Cash WinFall machine at both Billy’s Beverage of Sunderland and Jerry’s Place in South Deerfield, allowing the gamblers to process more bets faster.

After the Globe reported on the syndicates’ takeover of Cash WinFall last July, Grossman disciplined the owners of the two stores that had allowed the Michigan group to run the ticket machines themselves, and restricted the number of tickets any store could sell in a day, essentially ending the groups’ dominance. The game was phased out earlier this year.

“I see this as a teachable moment, to send a message to our customers that the integrity of the lottery is of paramount importance,” said Grossman.

Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/07/31/inspector_general_says_lottery_allowed_gambling_syndicates_to_take_over_winfall_game/?page=full

Gambling Hurts

Aug

3

Gambling addiction, crime and debt #problemgambling

This is an email I sent today, and I wanted to share on here omitting the recipient of course ;)

Sorry for the delay in reply, I have a lot going on right now and I wanted to be able to write to you with a clear head.

Firstly its really encouraging that there are people around who care for their neighbours, and that even though you are not a gambler yourself you can see the damage it is doing, not just to the addicts but to the whole community.

I will speak a little from my experience; everywhere I have lived I have maxed out every time on debt to fund my gambling addiction. In my twenties I was committing crime to the tune of £10,000s a month, not something I am in the slightest bit proud of. (I won't go into details other than to say it was of non violent nature.)

The problem for me has always been electronic gambling, so slots, FBOTs, mobile phone, TV and Internet gambling. I knew I had a problem in my early twenties (20 years ago now) but there was scant help around at the time and the drive to gamble was far stronger than the support I could find. but believe you me I was crying out for help.

Gambling has been my entire life, I moved around all over the place ditching friends when things became too hot. I borrowed money off anybody who'd lend to me to fuel my addiction, and so in the end I was constantly running and starting again. As a consequence I feel pretty lonely in my life today.

As gambling was my total life from about the age of 11, I didn't participate in normal activities with other children nor did I acquire hobbies. So now that I no longer gamble it is still a massive struggle to fill time, plus years of smashing the repeat bet button has its toll on my ability to keep still or focus at times.

I started a new life out of the UK (in my thirties) and repeated all the same mistakes with internet gambling and VLTs (same thing as FOBTs) and in the process lost my flat, and all my possessions. So what, its only material shit I know. So i live on the goodwill of my wife's parents for now but I am not living together with my wife and son. She is at her mums and I am at her dads.

Where we are currently there is no safety net, so no housing benefit or income support so if you have nothing you have nothing. I am unemployable it seems in Central Europe, I suspect in part because of my gambling addiction being now well known about in HR circles. Well I have sent over 1,000 CV applications and had 2 interviews and no job offers. And I don't believe that I'm completely incapable.

I say this not because I feel sorry for myself but because there is absolutely no need for anybody to go through what I have been through. I want people to know the consequences and I want the government and regulators to sit up and listen to stories like mine.

1. FOBTs or their equivalent are highly addictive, and they should be in highly controlled and regulated environments. In my view in casinos only and with 24 hour minimum wait on membership requirement.
2. Internet gambling needs to be taxed at point of access not supply and the EU should come together in my opinion to make this happen.
3. Credit cards should be prohibited for internet gambling transactions.
4. Minimum age for gambling should be at least 18 and possibly 21.

This would go a very long way to making gambling safer for the vulnerable, and far more than self exclusion which just puts all the responsibility on the person with the gambling addiction/sickness and none on the betting establishment.

When gambling becomes an addiction the end game is that it will likely be funded by crime or running up debts, totally undesirable consequences on the general public that would be substantially reduced by changing the law as per the points above.

I am no longer ashamed to speak out about my addiction, nor to discuss where it led me, only by speaking out can we hope to continue to raise the profile of gambling addiction and be successful in achieving gambling reform.

My battle still continues, I can't find work, I don't have a permanent place to live with my family, my personal relationships and particularly with my wife are extremely strained, I'm in a very big financial mess, I am constantly changing and trying to change/adapt my approach to find the way forward. I will prevail, I know it but gambling recovery is fucking hard and lonely whatever anybody says.

The gambling industry are mercenary opportunists who couldn't care less about my plight or the plight of other addicted persons who make up the bulk of their profits.

Thank you for caring, and for listening, please keep up the fight for gambling reform.

I apologize when I am not always responsive but sometimes I am alone in my thoughts and company.

Best Regards,

Tony aka GamblingHurts (a lot)

http://responsiblegambling1.blogspot.com/2012/08/gambling-crime-and-debt-problemgambling.html#!/2012/08/gambling-crime-and-debt-problemgambling.html

Bankrupting America From Home

Online betting is a losing game for our state and our nation

Barack Obama’s Justice Department, which has gotten picky about which laws it wants to enforce, decided in December that it wouldn’t apply the 1961 Wire Act to online gambling.

The News Tribune

The News Tribune

Published: Aug. 3, 2012

 

 

Barack Obama’s Justice Department, which has gotten picky about which laws it wants to enforce, decided in December that it wouldn’t apply the 1961 Wire Act to online gambling.

That decision, which reversed many years of federal policy, has produced a predictable sequel. Nevada and Delaware have legalized Internet gaming, and New Jersey may follow them by the end of the year.

Far more ominously, there’s a move afoot in Congress to legalize Web betting across the country. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other powerful lawmakers are pushing to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

If the industry has its way with Congress, there’d be no safe havens. Washington has attempted to ban online gaming, but federal legalization would probably allow gambling websites in other states to accept bets from Washingtonians. Our state’s policy would be effectively overturned.

It’s an irresponsible idea; lifting existing restrictions would magnify the social damage of casino gambling.

Nannyism isn’t always a bad thing. All of society has a stake in discouraging self-destructive behavior, including compulsive gambling.

Most gamblers are not compulsive; they bet from time to time as a form of entertainment. They can take it or leave it.

In this state, as in most others, they have no shortage of opportunity to play cards or slot machines. Washington abounds in small nontribal casinos, and it has enormous tribal casinos – such as the Puyallup tribe’s Emerald Queen – as well.

But some gamblers are addicts or near-addicts. For them, betting lights up exactly the same brain circuits as addictive drugs do. Gambling addicts often wreak havoc on the lives of people close to them. In many cases, they blow the mortgage money, rack up huge balances on credit cards or otherwise ruin their families’ finances behind the backs of their spouses.

In the worst cases, gamblers resort to embezzlement and other crimes to keep the action going.

Skeeter Timothy Manos [information below] – who embezzled money from public donations for survivors of four slain Lakewood police officers – is a notorious recent example of gambling away other people’s money.

Addictive gambling by itself is an illness, not a crime – but it is certainly not victimless.

As with other addictions, abuse has a lot to do with availability. Right now, a compulsive gambler has to go somewhere to bet. A casino may be only a couple of miles down the road, but the effort required to get there may be sufficient to help him avoid the place. There’s no barrier of time and effort when the gambling machine is sitting right on the table in his home.
 Congress – and the Obama administration – ought to be tightening the laws against Internet gaming, not loosening them. The Washington Legislature got this right in 2006 when it criminalized the industry. The other Washington should keep its hands off our law.  http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/03/2239604/online-betting-is-a-losing-game.html   Former Lakewood officer accused of stealing funds makes plea deal

Credit: KING

Skeeter Timothy Manos

by CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – Federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with the former Lakewood police officer accused of stealing from a fund for fallen officers.

The United States Attorney’s Office in Seattle has filed a charging document called an “information." It charges 34-year-old Skeeter Timothy Manos with a single count of wire fraud for using “means of wire communications” to steal $150,000 from the officer’s fund.
Informations are filed when prosecutors and the defendant have negotiated an agreement on how to resolve the case. Typically, they end up with the defendant pleading guilty to certain charges.

US Attorney’s spokesperson Emily Langlie says a plea hearing is being arranged, but a specific time and date has not been set.

Investigators say Manos stole from a fund created after the deaths of four Lakewood officers gunned down in a Parkland coffee shop in 2009. He allegedly spent the money on gambling, trips and shopping sprees.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Former-Lakewood-officer-accused-of-stealing-funds-makes-plea-deal-142851825.html

 

Skeeter Timothy Manos

 

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/crime-law/lakewood-officer-accused-embezzlement-case-faces-n/nHb8q/

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/03/2239604/online-betting-is-a-losing-game.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/03/2239604/online-betting-is-a-losing-game.html#storylink=cpy

Virginia: Budget Surplus with NO Predatory Gambling!

Virginia posted its third straight monthly budget surplus for the fiscal year.

THEY DON'T HAVE PREDATORY GAMBLING WITH ALL OF ITS ADDED BURDEN!

From AGA, sucking discretionary income from the local economy:
http://www.americangaming.org/files/aga/uploads/docs/sos/aga_sos_2012_web.pdf

Is there a connection? And take a look at which states have the most low wage jobs created by the Gambling Industry.

State News Roundup

News Roundup | August 2, 2012

 

California and Nevada are suffering from severe under-employment. The states are struggling not only to employee thousands out of work, but many who have part-time jobs are looking for full-time jobs and more working hours that are currently unavailable. The average unemployment rate from July 2011 to June 2012 for California is 11.2%, but its under-employment rate is far greater at 20.3%. The same holds true in Nevada with an average unemployment rate of 12.3% and under-employment rate of 22.1%. Manystates have experienced improvements in declining under-employment, but for a big economy like California, accounting for about 13% of U.S. GDP, there is still a ways to go to improve hiring.

Virginia posted its third straight monthly budget surplus for the fiscal year. This year’s savings total $130 million from revenue growth and savings in state government. Governor Robert F. McDonnell state, “Virginia continues to demonstrate that conservative fiscal management, a focus on government efficiency, and bipartisan efforts to bolster our economic development and job creation.
San Bernadino, California officially filed for bankruptcy on August 1st, just two weeks after declaring a $45.8 million shortfall in the city’s budget leaving them unable to make summer payroll. Chapter 9 bankruptcy will protect the city from lawsuits from their creditors while they find a way to reduce spending by 30% of the current budget.

Michigan will begin a new initiative to demolish thousands of vacant and abandoned homes in Detroit. The city lost a quarter of its population between 2000 and 2010 and has an estimated 40,000 vacant structures. The Governor plans to use an estimated $10 million of the $97 million payout from the national mortgage fraud settlement for the project. The plan comes after a power-sharing agreement between the state and the city of Detroit in April to prevent bankruptcy and help turn the city’s economy around.

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/state-news-roundup-78/

Appeals court reinstates case against tribal preference

Appeals court reinstates case against tribal preference

 

By Steve Decosta

sdecosta@s-t.com

August 02, 2012 12:00 AM

 

• KG Urban ruling August 2012

A federal appeals court panel of three judges has sent KG Urban's challenge of the tribal preference for a casino in Southeastern Massachusetts back to U.S. District Court for further deliberation.

While "we affirm the denial of KG's request for injunctive and declaratory relief ... there are difficulties with each party's arguments," wrote Sandra Lynch, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. "In the end, though, it is clear to us that KG's suit should not have been dismissed."

The case will be sent back to Judge Nathaniel Gorton, who in February rejected KG's claim that the tribal preference in the state's Expanded Gaming Act was race-based, ruling that, "Unfortunately, governing case law is to the contrary."

But the appeals court found that a particular case cited by Gorton does not apply and that approvals necessary for a tribal casino revolve around "a question not yet resolved" — the ability of the Mashpee Wampanoag to have land in Taunton taken into trust.

Gorton indicated the linchpin of his ruling was a Supreme Court case that determined that special treatment of tribes was politically, not racially, based. But the appeals court said that applies only to the federal government, not the state.

In addition, the appeals court recognized the obstacles presented by the Supreme Court's Carcieri decision, which prevents the federal Department of the Interior from taking into trust land for any tribe that was not under federal authority in 1934. The Mashpee Wampanoag were recognized in 2007.

A spokesman for Gov. Deval Patrick, lead defendant in KG's suit, declined to comment, saying he had not yet seen the ruling.

The next step in the case likely will be a status hearing in front of Judge Gorton. Proceedings may be delayed because the state will need to appoint new counsel, as assistant Attorney General Kenneth Salinger was appointed a Superior Court judge last week.

Andrew M. Stern, managing director of KG, issued the following statement: "Chief Judge Sandra Lynch and her colleagues on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit First Circuit colleagues have unanimously rejected the commonwealth's central argument, have reinstated our complaint and remanded the case for further proceedings.

In light of the Gaming Commission's announced schedule, which officially leaves the city of New Bedford and the entire southeast region behind, today is a victory for all of the citizens of the city and the region."

The state's Expanded Gaming Act allows up to three casinos in three distinct areas of the state, plus a slots parlor, and gives federally recognized tribes a head start on the process for obtaining the Southeastern Massachusetts license.

For exclusive gaming rights in the Southeast, the Mashpee Wampanoag had until July 31 to acquire property for its casino; schedule a referendum vote in the host community; negotiate a gaming compact with the governor and have it approved by the Legislature, and convince the state gaming commission that its property would be taken into federal trust.

The commission has said it is willing to wait for years, if necessary, for the federal Department of the Interior to take the land into trust. The tribe also needs Bureau of Indian Affairs approval of the compact.

Only if all that failed would commercial applicants be allowed to seek a license in Southeastern Massachusetts.

KG, which has been laying the groundwork for a casino development in New Bedford for four years, has argued that that's both unfair and illegal. "Southeastern Massachusetts is essentially being left behind," Stern said.

KG already has spent more than $5 million on its proposed casino at the abandoned Cannon Street power plant on New Bedford waterfront and has projected total spending of more than $1 billion if the group is ultimately awarded a casino license. And it would be far more beneficial to the area than a sprawling Indian casino built in an industrial park, Stern argued.

First, it would clean up a contaminated urban brownfields area at an anticipated cost of $50 million, something Stern said the government would be hard-pressed to do itself. And second, it would provide an economic engine to revitalize a struggling downtown and replace long-gone manufacturing jobs.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120802/NEWS/208020350/1018/OPINION

Casino operator linked to Montreal mafia denied parole

By PAUL CHERRY, The Gazette CRIME REPORTER

August 1, 2012

 

Nicola Di Marco (right) arrives at his sentence hearing with attorney Gary Martin (left) at the Montreal Courthouse in Montreal on Friday, April 1, 2011.

Photograph by: Dario Ayala , THE GAZETTE

MONTREAL- A man convicted of a series crimes committed while he helped run a clandestine casino for the Mafia in Montreal has been denied parole.

Nicola Di Marco, 43, had a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada on Wednesday while trying to obtain a release on the 4-year prison term he received last year for helping to operate a casino, between October 2005 and November 2006, financed by several heavyweights within the Mafia, including Nick (The Ritz) Rizzuto, the now deceased son of reputed mob boss Vito Rizzuto. Di Marco was convicted of conspiracy, committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal organization and possession of property obtained through crime. The hearing was presided over by board members Anne-Marie Asselin and Richard Belisle and was heard at the Drummond Institution, a medium-security penitentiary in Drummondville.

Part of his current sentence includes another conviction from when police caught him, while out on bail in the casino case, moving around Montreal with two firearms, including a loaded 9 mm handgun, while people involved with the Mafia in the city were embroiled in a violent internal conflict. When he was arrested in July 2010, Di Marco was already subject to a court order prohibiting him from possessing any firearms.

The conflict was created, in part, by the vacuum generated after the elder Rizzuto was extradited to the U.S. and convicted in a racketeering case. Vito Rizzuto is currently serving a 10-year in that case and is scheduled to be released in October. Several people have been murdered in recent years over what police believe was an attempt to take over the reins of the Mafia from the Rizzuto family. One of the recent victims of the conflict was Giuseppe (Closure) Colapelle, a man who was also involved in the secret casino where gamblers could take part in high-stakes poker games. Colapelle was murdered in March in St. Leonard. His death is mentioned in the parole decision as having caused concerns for Di Marco’s security behind bars.

According to a written summary of the parole board’s decision, Di Marco claims he is not concerned for his safety because he received the stiffest sentence of anyone arrested in connection with the casino and, he claims, he never told police who the firearms actually belonged to.

He also continues to deny being part of the Mafia, or being an influential figure within it. However, he continues to hang out with “influential members of traditional Italian organized crime” while he serves his sentence in Drummondville.

The parole board determined that while Di Marco takes part in, and even initiates, meetings with his case management team - the people who help inmates prepare for an eventual release - he appears to be superficial during them by refusing to discuss his ties to the Mafia. Di Marco was hoping to be released to halfway house and do community service but Asselin and Belisle were not convinced.

“It is clear to the parole board that you continue to favour the values of organized crime,” the author of the summary noted while listing the reasons for denying Di Marco a release. “Also, it was demonstrated that you know important members of the Italian Mafia and that you were a high-level intermediary. The people you frequent constitute a significant risk factor and the board is not convinced that you have made the decision to disassociate from them in a definitive manner.”
Di Marco has the right to appeal the decision.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Casino+operator+linked+Montreal+mafia+denied+parole/7025640/story.html#ixzz22ORy55za

Drugs at Parx

As Bill Kearney explains --

Casino security boxes are the same as bank safe deposit boxes. The reason casinos have them is to keep the gamblers and their cash especially the compulsive gamblers in their casinos. And like bank safe deposit boxes the money inside the boxes never gets reported to Uncle Sam. This is just one of many tools the casino operators use to seduce their prey.

Bensalem

Who put the pills in the leased security box point of contention at hearing

Eugene Yanelli

Eugene Yanelli in his Bucks County prison mug shot

Posted: Thursday, August 2, 2012

By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writerCalkins Media, Inc.

Posted on August 2, 2012

• 
  by Jo Ciavaglia

During an audit of inactive security boxes at Parx Casino, a manager discovered one containing more than 2,500 prescription painkillers and muscle relaxers.
That much the prosecution and defense attorneys agree on.
How the pills ended up in the locked box — and who they belong to — is another story, one that played out Wednesday before Bensalem District Judge Joseph Falcone at a preliminary hearing for a Philadelphia man facing felony drug charges.

In an objection-filled hearing, defense attorney Louis Busico argued that the Bucks County District
Attorney’s Office failed to definitively prove that the pills belonged to his client, Eugene Yanelli, 52, of Cinnamon Drive.

Prosecutor Ashley Stgonshek, though, said that her two witnesses — including the Parx manager who found the pills — say there is no way anyone other than Yanelli had access to the security box.

Following the brief hearing, Falcone held Yanelli for trial in Bucks County Court on drug possession and related charges. He remains free on 10 percent of $150,000 bail.

In April, Pennsylvania State Police arrested Yanelli after he showed up at the Street Road casino in Bensalem to access the leased security box, which is in his name, according to court records.

State Police Cpl. Brenda Armstrong testified that she received a report on Feb. 24 that a cashier manager for the Parx poker room opened the box and found four plastic baggies containing the white pills.

Armstrong confiscated the 2,668 pills and all but three tested positive as methadone, a powerful prescription painkiller. The others were a prescription muscle relaxer.

Armstrong discovered the box was leased to Yanelli and a signature card showed he signed the box in and out “numerous” times between February 2011 and July 2011, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Records showed the box was last signed out July 29, 2011, according to testimony and the affidavit. That’s seven months before the drugs were found and 11 months before Yanelli allegedly tried to access the box again.

Armstrong testified that there was no indication that anyone else — other than Yanelli — had access to the box before it was opened by the casino employee Feb. 24. Busico, though, demanded to know who authenticated and maintained the safety deposit records at the casino. The answer is Parx, Armstrong said.

Under cross examination, Armstrong acknowledged that she never met Yanelli until she observed him accessing the security box April 5 — the day he was arrested. She also acknowledged that the box had no drugs inside after they were removed Feb. 24.

She also testified there are no photos, witnesses or surveillance video evidence that showed Yanelli accessing the security box between Feb. 24 and April 5.

In her testimony, though, Armstrong said that Yanelli allegedly told her on April 5 that he was the last person to use the box, its contents were his and that he lost the key.

Cashier manager Robert Bradley, who found the pills, also testified that Yanelli’s security box was “dormant” between July 29, 2011, and April 5.

Bradley added that only two keys exist for each security box: the customer’s copy and one casino security has as a “backup” if a box is abandoned.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/crime/who-put-the-pills-in-the-leased-security-box-point/article_57e6a8a6-0735-5061-b695-9e425309609b.html#user-comment-area

This is Mitt Romney's Supporter

From: http://www.classwarfareexists.com/billionaire-under-criminal-investigation-for-possible-violations-of-the-u-s-anti-bribery-law/#axzz22KcFJscc

PBS Newshour explains what has been found and how the investigation is working…

Watch Did GOP Money Man Sheldon Adelson Violate Bribery Law? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Macau investigates Sands China over privacy breach in lawsuit by ex-CEO

AP, HONG KONG

A logo of Sands Cotai Central is seen on a gaming table inside a casino on the opening day of the Sands Cotai Central, Sands’ newest integrated resort in Macau, on April 11. The Macau government has launched an investigation into Sands China, after the firm transferred documents linked to a wrongful dismissal case to the US from Macau.

Photo: Reuters

The Chinese arm of US billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s gambling empire is being investigated by Macau privacy authorities over its handling of documents related to a lawsuit by its former CEO, who claims the company has links to crime bosses and encourages prostitution as part of its business strategy.

Sands China Ltd said yesterday it was notified by Macau’s privacy watchdog that an official investigation has been launched into the alleged transfer of “certain data” from the Asian gambling city to the US.

The former CEO, Steve Jacobs, was fired in July 2010 and filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit three months later. He accuses the company of breach of contract and pushing him into illegal activity in Macau. The suit has drawn interest from US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigators for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Sands China revealed no other details about the privacy investigation. The probe follows statements by Jacobs in US legal filings that Las Vegas Sands Corp, which is the parent company of Sands China, withheld documents related to his wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

Jacobs’ legal team has been seeking the documents from Las Vegas Sands, which the company’s lawyers initially said could not be moved out of Macau. However, they revealed recently that the files had been transferred in error more than a year ago, without notifying Macau or US authorities.

Macau has stringent privacy regulations that require consent and notification of authorities before personal data can be transmitted out of the territory.

A judge in the US has scheduled hearings for Aug. 30 and 31 on possible sanctions against Sands and its lawyers for failure to disclose the information to the other side.

Macau is the world’s biggest gambling market, raking in US$33.5 billion in casino revenue last year. Sands also operates casinos in Singapore as well as the Venetian and Palazzo casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, but its four Macau casinos account for the bulk of the company’s revenue.


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/08/02/2003539216

CASINO IS TESTAMENT TO GOVERNMENT FAILURE

CASINO IS TESTAMENT TO GOVERNMENT FAILURE By Mike Hudson

The Seneca Niagara Casino stands prominently today as a living monument to government failure. There was the failure of Niagara Falls city officials to get a significant cut of the casino revenue in the first place and their continuing failure to ensure that money was spent on worthwhile projects or that it was collected. Then there was the failure of state officials, blinded by the prospect of hundreds of millions of dollars flowing unencumbered annually into Albany ’s coffers, to do anything at all to protect the poor, taxpaying saps of Niagara Falls, known in official documents as the “host community.” And there was the failure of the Seneca Nation of Indians and their business arm, the Seneca Gaming Corp., to make even the slightest effort at being good neighbors. Make no mistake, in the eyes of the Seneca’s, the casino isn’t a tourist attraction located in downtown Niagara Falls, it is a major profit center located in the middle of sovereign land. Their corporate attitude toward the host city makes even the petrochemical industry’s robber barons who gave this city Love Canal seem benign in comparison. The Seneca’s don’t pay taxes, they don’t adhere to building codes or zoning ordinances, they can’t be sued in court and they act as though the world owes them a living. If the people of Niagara Falls do not rise to prevent it, in four years, the Seneca and the state of New York may sign another compact. How are our local and regional leaders preparing for the coming challenge? In much the same way they “prepared” a decade ago during the negotiations that led to the casino opening, which is to say not at all. State Sen. George Maziarz, ex-Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, Mayor Paul Dyster, Councilman Charles Walker – were on board in 2000 and 2001, when roughly 55,000 benighted residents of what may be the highest taxed municipality in the United States consumed the mantra of “Trust Albany” like it was Kool-Aid. We’ve had three governors and two mayors since George Pataki and Irene Elia signed off on the original deal. The “Trust Albany” theme has undergone a rebirth with two of its adherents being Councilwoman Kristin Grandinetti and, again, Mayor Dyster. But there are dark rumors swirling around the governor’s mansion that hint that Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be getting ready to sell the Niagara Frontier further down river. The state now allows Finger Lakes Gaming and Batavia Downs to call themselves casinos, even though they’ve only got electronic slot machines. Both want a casino license to have table games. There’s one hitch. Gov. Cuomo says he wants to open it up to competition and the nine race tracks in New York would not necessarily get first crack. Cuomo is said to favor a plan that would see the new, non-native casinos opened downstate, with Western New York reserved for Indian gaming and blacked out to further development. Cuomo is said to believe that such a plan would address what the New York Daily News and other downstate media have characterized as his “Indian problem.” This would mean, while the rest of the state could have anyone open a casino, from Donald Trump to Steve Wynn, in Niagara Falls only Seneca Indians would be allowed to run them . If the past is prologue, the people of Niagara Falls have no reason whatsoever to believe their elected leaders will get them a better deal this time around. We’ll be lucky to keep what we have and that is pretty close to nothing.

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Stories/2012/July10/HudsonCasinoTestament.html